JAMAICA

A pastor held in connection to suspected human sacrifices was killed in a police car crash on his way to be charged

KARMA IS A BITCH, WITH A SENSE OF IRONY

Matthew Loh
Tue, October 26, 2021, 

A pastor named Kevin Smith died in a police car crash, authorities said. Douglas Sancha/Getty Images


A pastor detained over suspected human sacrifices died in a police car crash, the police said.


Kevin Smith described himself as a prophet and was said to have made his congregants kneel for him.


His church was thought to have engaged in ritual killings as well as a shootout with the police.

A pastor in Jamaica who was accused of being involved in human sacrifices died in a police car crash, the local police said Monday.

Kevin Smith, the leader of Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries, died while being transported from Montego Bay to Kingston to face charges connected to suspected ritual killings, the local news outlet Jamaica Observer reported.

The police were said to be moving Smith and another suspect in two cars, one of which overturned - killing Smith and a police officer while seriously injuring two more officers, a police representative told the Observer.


The representative, Stephanie Lindsay, the senior superintendent of police, said authorities still weren't sure exactly what happened.

"One vehicle was the pilot, and the other vehicle was behind," she said. "The vehicle that was behind, based on the account given by the pilot vehicle, there was a crashing sound, and they realized that the vehicle overturned."
Killing rituals, shootouts, and prophetic claims

Smith's death is the latest in a recent string of violent and dramatic events surrounding Pathways International.

On October 17, the police arrived at the organization's Montego Bay church after receiving reports from a member saying she had been stabbed as part of a ritual, per the news outlet Jamaica Loop.

A deadly shootout ensued and one man was fatally shot, Jamaica Loop reported, citing authorities.

The police later entered the church building and found two bodies, per Jamaica Loop - a man with gunshot wounds and a woman whose throat had been slashed. They also found a wounded man who said he was stabbed and shot in connection to a ritual.

A camera was in the room, but it's unclear whether it was used to record the killings, Jamaica Loop reported.

The Observer interviewed an unnamed woman - identified as a church member - who said she'd witnessed the woman's throat being slashed.

"It was very intense," the woman said. "When I saw blood and the young lady fell, I said: 'This is it for me.'" She said she and several other church members fled the area after witnessing the violence.

The police arrested 42 members of the congregation, including Smith, though most were later released.

The detained pastor was later seen in a widely circulated video talking to police officers, who laughed at his religious claims.

"I am the fountain of life," he said in the clip, adding: "I came as Jonah the warner, but they mocked and they scoffed at me. They surrounded me and looked at me and said, 'Who is this man?'"

A pamphlet for Pathways International addressed Smith as "former crown Ambassador of the Throne of Nubia Sheba, globe traveler to over 100 countries worldwide and Yeshu'a Hamashiach end time Prophet to the Nations," according to The Daily Beast.

A source told The Daily Beast he made his congregants call him "Crown Bishop" and kneel before him whenever they spoke with him.

Members of the church said they were shocked by the murder claims, describing Pathways International as "a regular church," per the Observer. Soon after Smith's arrest, congregants set up a GoFundMe page for his legal fees, calling Smith "His Excellency Kevin Smith 999," though it now appears to have been taken down.

Even after official confirmation of Smith's death, some of them told the Observer they thought he's still alive.

"I do not believe anything the media publish about him, not even that he is dead," one member told the news outlet.

"But if he is, he didn't die in that car accident," she said. "He was dead before."

Read the original article on Insider

The Nazis were already shooting at US warships months before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor


Benjamin Brimelow
Tue, October 26, 2021, 

US Navy destroyer USS Reuben James on the Hudson River in New York, April 29, 1939. US Navy/Wikimedia Commons

On October 31, 1941, USS Reuben James became the first US warship sunk by enemy action in World War II.

It was the culmination of months of fighting between the US and German navies in the Atlantic.

The sinking didn't bring the US into the war, but it did solidify US leaders' support for the Allies.

Around 5:30 a.m. on October 31, 1941, an explosion ripped through the US Navy destroyer USS Reuben James as it and other destroyers escorted 42 merchant ships across the Atlantic to Britain.

The explosion, caused by a torpedo that detonated the destroyer's magazine, was so intense that the bow was completely blown off. The ship sank in about five minutes - so fast that no official order to abandon ship could be given.

It was the first US Navy warship sunk by enemy action in World War II, and the US wasn't even at war when it happened.

War closes in

President Franklin Roosevelt aboard a battleship. Bettmann/Getty Images

The situation on the Atlantic was tense by fall 1941. Despite the US's stated commitment to neutrality, President Franklin Roosevelt had taken a number of actions to help the Allies, especially Britain.

In October 1939, weeks after the war's start, the US had established a neutrality zone extending some 300 nautical miles off the coasts of the independent countries of North and South America. US Navy patrols would broadcast the position of German U-boats, exposing them to Allied warships.

The US also supplied food and military equipment to Britain through agreements like the Destroyers-for-Bases Deal and the Lend-Lease Program.

By the end of September 1941, the US had expanded the neutrality zone and the patrols within it as far as Greenland, the defense of which the US had taken over. The US also occupied Iceland, at the request of Britain, and began escorting convoys there from Canada.

There had also been low-level combat between US and German forces.

On April 10, 1941, the destroyer USS Niblack attacked a German U-boat with depth charges near Iceland, driving the sub away from a convoy. On September 4, a German U-boat fired a torpedo at the destroyer USS Greer without hitting it.

Neither incident caused casualties, but the attack on Greer led Roosevelt to issue a "shoot-on-sight" order for any German or Italian warships in waters deemed to be "necessary for American defense."

On October 17, 1941, the first US blood was spilled when the destroyer USS Kearny was hit by a German torpedo while escorting a convoy in the North Atlantic. Though the ship itself survived, 11 sailors were killed and 22 wounded.

USS Reuben James

US Navy destroyer USS Reuben James aground at Lobos Cay, Cuba, November 30, 1939. National Archives & Records Administration

A little more than a week after the Kearny attack, the U-boat U-552 was lurking off Iceland, approaching a convoy guarded by US warships. One of them was Reuben James, which was sent to investigate a suspicious signal near the convoy.

The US destroyer was between an ammunition ship and the U-boat when it was struck by a torpedo. It sank so quickly that in the early-morning darkness the commander of the escort force couldn't tell which ship had been attacked until Reuben James didn't respond to a check-in call.

Only two sailors from the front end of the ship survived the blast. During the five minutes Reuben James remained afloat after the attack, sailors jumped from the rear of the ship into the oil-covered water. Moments after the destroyer slipped beneath the waves, however, at least two of its depth charges detonated, killing or wounding even more sailors.

Four escort ships remained, one of which was USS Niblack. Niblack and another escort were sent to search for survivors, which the darkness, oil-covered water, and the threat of another U-boat attack made more difficult.

Of the ship's 144-man crew, only 44 survived. Ninety-three enlisted sailors and all seven officers were killed.

After the rescue, the escort ships went on the offensive, trying to attack U-552 with dozens of depth charges. The U-boat escaped, however, and the next day, the Americans turned the convoy over to the Royal Navy and headed for Iceland.

The convoy made it to England without any more attacks by U-552 or other U-boats. Reuben James was the only casualty.

'The shooting has started'

Crew aboard US Coast Guard cutter Spencer watch a depth charge explode, blasting a German submarine trying to break into a US convoy, April 17, 1943. (AP Photo)

The attack on the Kearny and the sinking of the Reuben James solidified Roosevelt's support of the Allies.

"We have wished to avoid shooting, but the shooting has started, and history has recorded who has fired the first shot," Roosevelt said in a Navy Day speech on October 27. "Our ships have been sunk and our sailors have been killed. I say that we do not propose to take this lying down."

Germany was unapologetic. Roosevelt denounced Germany and promised that escorts of Allied merchant ships to Iceland would continue. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox even called the incident "worse than piracy."

But Roosevelt knew most of the country was still against getting directly involved in the war in Europe, so the US took no further action in response to the sinking.

Only when the US and Germany declared war on each other on December 11, 1941, did the US fully commit to the war in Europe. The US Navy, though, had effectively been at war in the Atlantic for months.

Living with the world's oldest mummies


Jane Chambers - Arica, Chile
Mon, October 25, 2021,

The Chinchorro mummified children - in this case a boy estimated to be six or seven - as well as adults

"It may seem strange for some people to live on top of a graveyard, but we're used to it," says Ana María Nieto, who lives in the Chilean port city of Arica.

Arica, on the border with Peru, is built on the sandy dunes of the Atacama desert, the driest desert in the world.

But long before the coastal town was founded in the 16th Century, this area was home to the Chinchorro people.

Their culture hit the news in July when the United Nations' cultural organisation, Unesco, added hundreds of mummies preserved by them to its World Heritage List.

The Chinchorro mummies were first documented in 1917 by German Archaeologist Max Uhle, who had found some of the preserved bodies on a beach. But it took decades of research to determine their age.

Radiocarbon dating eventually showed that the mummies were more than 7,000 years old - more than two millennia older than the more widely known Egyptian mummies.

Chinchorro culture

Chinchorro mummy


Pre-ceramic culture that lasted from 7,000 to 1,500 BC


Sedentary fishers and hunter-gatherers


Lived in what is now northernmost Chile and southern Peru


Mummified their dead in a sophisticated and evocative manner


Mummification is believed to have started as a way to keep the memories of the dead alive

That makes the Chinchorro mummies the oldest known archaeological evidence of artificially mummified bodies.

Anthropologist Bernardo Arriaza, an expert on the Chinchorro, says they practiced intentional mummification. That means they used mortuary practices to conserve the bodies rather than leave them to naturally mummify in the dry climate - although some naturally mummified bodies have also been found at the sites.

Small incisions would be made to a body, the organs taken out and the cavities dried while the skin was ripped off, Mr Arriaza explains.

The Chinchorro people would then stuff the body with natural fibres and sticks to keep it straight before using reeds to sew the skin back on.

They would also attach thick black hair onto the mummy's head and cover its face with clay and a mask with openings for the eyes and mouth.

The Chinchorro mummified children and babies as well as adults

They covered the mummies' faces with clay masks

Thick black hair was attached onto the mummies' heads

Finally, the body was painted in a distinctive red or black colour using pigments from minerals, ochre, manganese and iron oxide.

The Chinchorro's methods and approach to mummification differed markedly from that of the Egyptians, Mr Arriaza says.

Not only did the Egyptians use oil and bandages, mummification was also reserved for deceased members of the elite whereas the Chinchorro mummified men, women, children, babies and even foetuses regardless of their status.
Living with the dead

With hundreds of mummies found in Arica and other sites over the past century, locals learned to live alongside - and often on top of - the remains.

Discovering human remains during building works or having your dog sniff out and dig up parts of a mummy is something generations of locals have experienced. But for a long time they did not realise just how significant these remains were.

"Sometimes the residents tell us stories about how the children used the skulls for footballs and took the clothing off the mummies, but now they know to report back to us when they find something, and to leave it alone," archaeologist Janinna Campos Fuentes says.

Locals Ana María Nieto and Paola Pimentel are thrilled that Unesco has recognised the significance of the Chinchorro culture.

The women lead neighbour associations near two of the excavation sites and have been working closely with a group of scientists from the local Tarapacá University to help the community understand the importance of the Chinchorro Culture and to make sure the precious sites are looked after.

There are plans for a neighbourhood museum - where rows of Chinchorro remains lie under reinforced glass for visitors to peer at - to get a new interactive extension. The idea is to train locals as guides so they can show off their heritage to others.

Currently, only a tiny part of the more than 300 or so Chinchorro mummies are on display. Most of them are housed at the San Miguel de Azapa Archaeological Museum.

The museum, which is owned and run by Tarapacá University, is a 30-minute drive from Arica and has impressive displays showing the mummification process.

A larger museum is being planned on the site to house more of the mummies but funds are also needed to ensure they are correctly preserved so they do not deteriorate.

Mr Arriaza and archaeologist Jannina Campos are also convinced that Arica and the surrounding hills still hold many treasures that have yet to be discovered. But, more resources are needed to find them.

The mayor, Gerardo Espindola Rojas, hopes the addition of the mummies to the World Heritage List will boost tourism and attract additional funds.

Gerardo Espindola Rojas wants the community to reap the benefits of increased tourism

But he is mindful that any development should be done in the right way, working with the community and safeguarding the sites.

"Unlike Rome that sits on monuments, the people of Arica are living on top of human remains and we need to protect the mummies."

Urban planning laws are in place and archaeologists are present whenever building works are carried out, he says, to make sure the precious remains are not disturbed.

Mayor Espindola is also adamant that unlike in some other parts of Chile, where tour operators and multinational companies have bought up land to reap profit from tourist sites, Arica's heritage should remain in the hands of its people and benefit the local community.

Neighbourhood association president Ana Maria Prieto is positive the newfound fame of the mummies will work in everyone's favour.

"This is a small town, but a friendly one. We want tourists and scientists from all over the world to come and learn about the incredible Chinchorro Culture that we've been living with all our life."

Astronauts Using Guns in Space Could Become a Reality


Astronauts Using Guns in Space Could Become a Reality

Kyle Mizokami
Tue, October 26, 2021, 6:26 AM·5 min read

The second season of the Apple TV+ series For All Mankind shows U.S. Marines in space using M16s.

Astronauts probably wouldn’t use real M16s in space—but they could still use guns.

Low gravity and crazy temperature swings would make traditional guns inoperable in space.

The Apple TV+ sci-fi series For All Mankind, set against the backdrop of the Cold War, just introduced a new element: space guns.

The ongoing second season of the acclaimed series, which imagines an alternate history in which the Soviets beat NASA to the moon and the global space race never ended, depicts spacefaring U.S. troops using M16s. In real life, however, a weapon like the M16 would be extremely difficult to operate in space.

Using weapons in the extremes of space, including wild temperature swings and low gravity, would present challenges for both those who design and carry the weapons.

In For All Mankind, NASA, stung by its crushing defeat in the space race, redoubles its efforts to take the lead against the Soviets. That includes sending women into the Apollo program and building a giant, sea-launched cargo rocket called “Sea Dragon.”

By the 1980s, the first American lunar colony, Jamestown, is firmly established on the moon, supplied by regular Space Shuttle missions. The seizure of an American lithium mine by Soviet cosmonauts triggers the deployment of five U.S. Marines to the Jamestown colony, all armed with space versions of the M16A2 rifle.

The M16 was obviously designed to function on Earth, in Earth gravity, within a band of temperatures normally found on Earth. The rifle can work in deserts in temperatures of 100 degrees Fahrenheit or higher and in “extreme cold weather,” the U.S. Army says. (That’s as specific as it gets.)

While those conditions seem broad by Earth standards, in space, it’s a different story.

Gravity itself will vary, from zero-gravity conditions far from planetary bodies to one-sixth of Earth’s gravity on the moon. Temperatures on the moon can swing wildly, from a high of 260 degrees Fahrenheit to minus 280 degrees.

Photo credit: Christopher Jensen - Getty Images

Gravity would affect all aspects of the M16, from how bullets are seated in the magazine to how the buffer spring would bounce the bolt carrier group back and forth inside the weapon. The internal action of the M16 is precisely timed, and a change in gravity would throw everything off.

Changing the mass of various internal parts, spring weights, and even the type and amount of gunpowder used might make a lunar M16 workable—but it would require a lot of testing under lunar conditions. One concern: The M16 uses gunpowder gases to cycle the weapon. Just how would that hot, pressurized gunpowder gas behave in low gravity?

Bullets in principle should work fine, since they use their own propellant and don’t rely on oxygen. But again, the big issue here would be gravity.

Under Earth gravity, an M16 bullet starts a slow, inexorable drop as soon as it exits the barrel, one that eventually ends up with the bullet plowing into the ground. Earth’s gravitational influence means a terrestrial M16 bullet will drop 24 inches at 400 yards. While a bullet fired under lunar gravity would still eventually plow into the lunar soil, at one-sixth gravity, the same bullet would fly a flatter, steadier trajectory for far longer.

There’s no wind in space or on the moon, so there would be no need to calculate for windage at longer ranges. At 400 yards, wind at 10 miles per hour will blow an M16 bullet 21 inches off course—enough to miss a man-sized target. A lack of wind will make it easier to hit a target, at least in the horizontal axis.

Photo credit: Historical - Getty Images

Temperatures would prove to be another challenge. Engineers could probably develop a lubricant that operates within a 500-degree band, but Space Marines would need to be careful with their rate of fire. A gun already heated to 280 degrees Fahrenheit would start to have heat issues more quickly than one on Earth, including bullet propellant igniting in the chamber before the trigger is pulled (“cooking off”) and even melting rifle parts.

And then there’s a problem totally unique to the moon: moon dust. The dust, a fine coating of lunar soil found up to 60 miles above the moon’s surface, could get into a rifle’s internals and cause it to jam. The M16 is particularly vulnerable to jamming, and is even equipped with a dust cover to prevent dust, dirt, and sand from entering the weapon before it’s fired. How would you keep moon dust out of an M16 during combat?

For All Mankind does give the space M16s some thought. On the show, the rifles are white and silver, colors that let them blend in with the moon dust, and they’re equipped with collapsing stocks and optical sights.

Real M16s in the 1980s featured fixed stocks and lacked optical sights. Collapsing stocks would be more ergonomic for shooters in large, bulky spacesuits. The raised optical sight, meanwhile, would be easier for an astronaut in a space suit to use, but a laser sight would allow the space shooter to shoot accurately without aiming.

Our reality has been spared a world with space rifles, but with the establishment of the Space Force and the increasing militarization of space, it seems inevitable that small arms will eventually make their way into space and beyond.

GRIFTER NATION 

The New Side Hustle: Helping Anti-Vaxxers Get Religious Exemptions


Adam Rawnsley
Tue, October 26, 2021

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Photos Getty

The spike in anti-vaxxers seeking religious exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccine is creating a cottage industry of pastors, lawyers, and activists offering help with crafting letters that they say can help you dodge the jab and still keep your job.

With government and employee vaccine mandates taking hold, religious exemptions that assert a worker’s theological objection to inoculation are one of the few legal routes left for anti-vaxxers holding out on getting a COVID-19 shot.

In response to that desperation, a range of services with varying price points have cropped up: from $25 Zoom seminars with untrained activists who lack legal training, to pastors offering “concierge packages” and attestations of faith for a generous donation, to the pricier option of $1,400 consulting sessions with attorneys who specialize in anti-vaccine litigation.


And while federal courts offer contradictory guidance on who should get a religious exemption and under what conditions, the demand is only getting higher, according to one sought-after firm.

"There’s been an incredible rise in the number of people seeking exemptions from our vantage point,” said Aaron Siri, managing partner of Siri Glimstad, a law firm well-known in the anti-vaxx world because the firm specializes in vaccine-related litigation and worked in the niche field well before the pandemic.

Siri Glimstad attorneys have filed cases on behalf of the Informed Consent Action Network, a Texas-based anti-vaccine group founded and funded by former Dr. Phil Show producer Del Bigtree, against the CDC and Department of Health & Human Services, as well as on behalf of clients seeking to overturn employer mandates entirely.

When it comes to religious exemptions, Siri says employers have generally been obliging and he hasn’t had to file a suit over a request yet. “I would say, for the most part, they’re accepted, but it does vary by circumstances and employer,” Siri says. The firm advertises that “hundreds of individuals” have obtained a vaccine exemption through its services.

But those exemptions don’t come cheap. To hire Siri Glimstad’s attorneys for help on crafting a letter, their website says a consultation on religious exemptions runs around $1,400 per client.

Liberty Counsel—an evangelical nonprofit legal foundation—has been offering pro bono representation for clients in pursuit of religious exemption. The group previously focused on more traditional culture-war issues like anti-abortion suits and cases seeking to deny LGBTQ Americans their rights but Liberty’s founder, Mathew Staver, shares many of his clients conspiratorial views about vaccines and likes to air them in public. In speeches, he’s called COVID-19 shots part of a “depopulation” conspiracy to force the world to “have a tracking mechanism to determine whether or not you've had one of these particular injections.”

Just recently, one of Liberty Counsel’s most prominent cases involved health-care workers in Maine with a suit aimed at overturning the state’s vaccine mandate for hospital and nursing home employees. Last week, the Supreme Court declined to grant an emergency injunction as the case plays out in lower courts.

Anti-Vaxxers Are Already Trying to Weaponize Powell’s Death

The group did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast but Liberty Counsel has been inundated with requests for help in crafting exemption requests to employers, schools, and government agencies, according to Liberty’s website. The demand for the firm’s exemption demand-crafting services has grown so much that Liberty now advertises for attorneys to work as affiliates to help cope with the “thousands of people” reaching out to them.

“There are more people than we can help and we hope you can take some referrals in your state to send demand letters,” the firm instructs prospective affiliates.

While some who hope to avoid a vaccine have had some victory on the state level—a court recently ruled that New York’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health-care workers had to allow for religious exemptions—employer-based mandates could be harder for the vaccine resistant to crack.

Under the 1964 Civil Rights Act, “If an employee has a sincere religious objection to a workplace rule, the employee deserves reasonable accommodation unless it’s an undue burden,” explains Dorit Reiss, a professor of law at UC Hastings who has written extensively about vaccine requirements. “It has to be sincere which means employers are on decent ground if they try to evaluate sincerity although there are a lot of pitfalls in evaluating sincerity.”

“What employees are entitled to is reasonable accommodation, which means they don’t have to be given exactly what they want, such as a complete exemption,” Reiss says. “The employer may say ‘Well, I can’t have you working inside a nursing home with a vulnerable patient if you’re not taking the vaccine but I’ll give you an administrative job away from the patient.’”

Other far-right organizations have also offered free exemption template letters aimed at getting employers to excuse them from a shot. Sidney Powell’s legal advocacy nonprofit, Defending the Republic, has offered template letters (Protestants and Catholics only) and encouraged their followers to “Push back against Mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations!” with them.

America’s Frontline Doctors, the pro-Trump, anti-mask group that’s hyped bogus COVID miracle cures like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, offers its own free template letter but also directs visitors to the website of Pastor David and Peggy Hall, a California couple who offer a $175 “concierge package” that includes sample documents, private group consulting calls and a personal attestation of faith. Anita Martir Rivera, an evangelical minister based in Texas also offers “letters of religious exemption” with “no personal religious questions asked” (“a donation,” however, “will be humbly asked on behalf of the work of the ministry,” according to her website).

Neither the Halls nor Rivera responded to requests for comment from The Daily Beast.

Cait Corrigan, a graduate student who got into a public feud with Earlham College over its vaccine policy (an Earlham Spokesperson says an administrator mistakenly told her vaccines were required at graduation but that the school subsequently clarified its policy), rose to prominence in the anti-vaxx movement after an appearance on the podcast of Robert F. Kennedy Jr, one of the founding members of the modern anti-vaccine movement.

Reached by The Daily Beast, Corrigan declined to answer questions about her exemption letter business.

Ex-Politician Charged in QAnon Abduction Also Plotted to Attack Vax Clinics, Police Say

Other letters may seem free but include hidden costs. Jackson Lahmeyer, a pastor and Oklahoma Republican running for Senate, advertises a template for a religious exemption letter on his campaign website. Users hoping to download the letter have to fork over their name and phone number to Lahmeyer’s campaign site and are automatically subscribed to the candidate’s campaign list.

Not everyone is eager to help out with workers demands to continue their jobs shot-free.

“There’s certainly been an uptick in calls from people who do not want to abide a COVID vaccine mandate as a condition of continued employment,” Stephan Mashel, an employment attorney based in New Jersey, told The Daily Beast.

“I’ve been offered many times to file lawsuits and been offered to help other lawyers and I want no part of it. I think those lawsuits are baseless and that’s my position and that’s my firm’s position.”

TENNESSEE FIRED TRUTH TELLER

Emails reveal dismay, anger over vaccine chief's firing

KIMBERLEE KRUESI and JONATHAN MATTISE

Tue, October 26, 2021, 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The firing of Tennessee's former vaccination director caught the state's top health leaders off guard and sent them scrambling for answers as the health commissioner fumed over the praise coworkers heaped on the ousted employee, documents show.

Earlier this year, Tennessee's Department of Health sparked national attention after Dr. Michelle “Shelley” Fiscus was fired under pressure from Republican legislators incensed over the department's efforts to get children vaccinated against COVID-19. Fiscus accused Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey of terminating her “to appease a handful of outraged and uninformed legislators.”

The Associated Press requested a week's worth of emails among the health department's top leadership regarding Fiscus' firing in mid-July. The records, released for review after several months, paint a more complete picture of an agency in turmoil over the firing of an official who was highly regarded by those fighting to contain the pandemic.

The agency last month said it would cost the AP roughly $1,400 to review several hundred records. Ultimately, the department produced some 150 records to view in person at no cost, explaining the discrepancy by saying the initial figure had estimated “potential" costs. The state's open records law requires that all public records be made available for inspection upon request.

Emails provided to the AP show some officials were shocked at Fiscus' firing.

“I am so saddened by this news and honestly cannot comprehend it,” wrote Dr. Jill Obremskey, department medical director. “Dr. Fiscus has put forth a herculean effort to assure COVID vaccine was available to anyone who wanted it. Because of her, many lives have been saved.”

In announcing Fiscus' firing, Dr. John Dunn, state epidemiologist, acknowledged that the news was “sudden, sad and disconcerting to our team members.”

“I wish her the very best in the future. Her commitment to public health has been very evident during the COVID-19 response effort over the last 18 months,” Dunn wrote on July 12.

Two days prior, in a separate email to CDC officials, Dunn highlighted that Fiscus had helped lead “herculean efforts” to push the COVID-19 shot among the state's unvaccinated.

Dr. Tim Jones, chief medical officer, later told Dunn his kind words about Fiscus had upset Piercey.

“By the way, the commissioner is really angry that you wrote anything nice about Shelley in your traditional ‘farewell message’ and that Obremskey reiterated it. It’s been fun around here,” Jones wrote to Dunn on July 14. 

A department spokesperson declined to comment on Jones' description, saying it was a personnel issue.

The email traffic raises new questions about a letter dated July 9 — attributed to Jones — that recommended the firing of Fiscus. 

The letter said Fiscus should be removed due to complaints about her leadership approach and her handling of a letter explaining vaccination rights of minors for COVID-19 shots without notifying their parents, which helped prompt the backlash from lawmakers. 

Tennessee officials, however, didn’t release her performance reviews, which are exempted under state public records law. Fiscus’ husband Brad circulated them in rebuttal, showing she received glowing appraisals over several years. One positive review came as recently as June, when Dunn praised Fiscus for “strong leadership” while her program was under “very intense scrutiny.” 

A month prior, Republican lawmakers put Fiscus and the department in the hot seat over its childhood vaccine messaging efforts, with one lawmaker floating the possibility of shuttering the health agency as retribution.

News of Fiscus’ firing quickly resulted in a barrage of phone calls from Tennesseans and others alarmed by her dismissal and the department’s decision to pause COVID-19 vaccine outreach efforts for eligible minors. Emails show Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s communication team provided a script for the health agency to recite.

“(The department) began using the script at about 12:45 and it is not going well...the callers are really upset,” wrote agency staffer Lisa Hanner.

Piercey was on vacation in Greece when Fiscus was fired. Few of the emails provided to AP include her correspondence, but a handful indicate she was monitoring media coverage.

At least one doctor emailed Piercey to praise her for firing Fiscus, which the commissioner forwarded to Brandon Gibson, Lee's chief operating officer. There's no indication in the records that she forwarded any emails from the medical community backing Fiscus.

“I am thankful to my colleagues at the Tennessee Department of Health for coming to my defense and admonishing the department leadership’s decision to terminate me from my position," Fiscus told the AP. 

“Tennessee’s elected and appointed officials continue to put politics ahead of what is in the best interest of the health and wellbeing of the people of Tennessee and it is the people who will continue to suffer the consequences of these misguided priorities. It’s shameful,” she added.

The department did not respond to the records request until Sept. 9, informing the AP it would cost about $1,400 for attorneys to vet and potentially redact about 875 records. When the AP asked to view the records in person as allowed under Tennessee’s open records law, the department updated that the total amount of documents would be 374.

Ultimately, the agency only identified 158 documents within the AP’s records request. Asked about the reduced number, a department spokesperson said the original estimate included “potential” records, not a firm amount.

Canadians have highest “lifestyle carbon footprint” of all nations in this study

M.A. Jacquemain
Tue, October 26, 2021


New research has found that all nations analyzed exceed the lifestyle carbon footprint required to avert the climate crisis. The report warned of the need for a precipitous reduction in the global carbon footprint and called for changes at the personal and systemic levels.

The research, 1.5 Degree Lifestyles report, analyzed the lifestyle carbon footprint of nine G20 countries, including Canada. Examining domestic habits in six areas, including food, housing, transport, and leisure, the research determined the reductions necessary to align with the 1.5°C warming increase target outlined in the Paris Agreement.

An update to many climate narratives and modelling scenarios that focus largely on “developing new technologies” and “changes in production,” the report begins to fill the gap of knowledge concerning “the potential contributions of lifestyle changes to climate change mitigation.”

These changes, according to the report, present serious challenges.

“Talking about lifestyle changes is a hot-potato issue to policymakers who are afraid to threaten the lifestyles of voters,” stated Dr. Lewis Akenji, the lead author of the report. “This report brings a science based approach and shows that without addressing lifestyles we will not be able to address climate change.”

A pipeline at an oil lease site in Alberta, Canada. (wolv/ E+/ Getty Images)

One important finding determined that the gap between targets and current lifestyles means that footprints in the higher income nations will have to be reduced by 90–95 per cent by 2050.

Of note was the disparity between lifestyle carbon footprints in higher income and lower income nations. The analysis highlighted that the top 10 per cent of wealthiest and highest emitting individuals account for as much as 49 per cent of the emissions total, globally. Conversely, a full half of the world population, generally the poorest, emit less than 15 per cent of the global total.

Such findings are discussed using a new concept called “Fair Consumption Space”—“an ecologically healthy perimeter that supports within it an equitable distribution of resources and opportunities for individuals and societies to fulfil their needs and achieve wellbeing.”

The concept promotes a reduction of the environmentally sustainable overconsumption of wealthier countries in concert with an increase in consumption to mitigate the socially unsustainable conditions in poorer nations.

“The report asks the question: in order to stay within limited global temperature rise, how do we distribute the remaining and shrinking carbon budget in a fair manner that allows everyone equitable opportunities for a life of dignity?”

These recommendations would have particular ramifications on lifestyles in Canada, which was determined to have by far the highest lifestyle footprint of all nations analyzed. The per capita emissions of the average Canadian was found to be fully six times greater than the average person in Indonesia, three times that of Chinese or South African citizens, and not quite double the footprint of someone from the UK.

vessels carrying garbage in london UK

 (Matt Mawson/ Moment/ Getty Images)

Canadians had the highest footprint in all the domains investigated, with particularly high levels of personal transport, meat consumption, and housing.

“The effects of the climate crisis are a human health issue, they impact communities across Canada,” Idil Boran, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, York University told The Weather Network.

“Canada has an opportunity to lead a climate-smart transformation. With the Glasgow Climate Conference COP26 around the corner, there is an opportunity to take accelerated action on these issues now,” Boran added.

While addressing these emissions excesses poses both social and political challenges—Canada would be required to reduce its lifestyle carbon footprint 85 per cent by 2030 to keep in line with climate targets—the report offered scenarios for achieving climate targets within a Fair Consumption Space.

The report explores ideas like carbon rationing, universal basic services, and choice editing—in which governments would “set standards to filter out unsuitable products and services” from the market. Nevertheless, the authors caution that “failing to shift the lifestyles of nearly eight billion human beings means we can never effectively reduce emissions or successfully address our global climate crisis.”

“Accelerated action requires a ‘whole of society approach,’ with efforts at all levels,” Boran told TWN. “It requires a change of mindset, and a new approach to our relationship with nature.”

Thumbnail credit: Wei Fang/ Moment/ Getty Images

Fox News' Neil Cavuto shares death threat he received after encouraging people to get vaccinated

Charles Davis,Jake Lahut

Tue, October 26, 2021,

Fox News host Neil Cavuto. Steven Ferdman/Getty Images

Earlier this month, Cavuto revealed he had tested positive for COVID-19.

The Fox News host, who has preexisting conditions, credited the vaccine with saving his life.

Fox News requires employees to be vaccinated or undergo regular testing.

Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto received hate mail - and a seeming death threat - after urging his viewers to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

In a Tuesday afternoon segment on his show, "Your World," Cavuto discussed an email he received from one viewer who commented that he had appeared to lose weight.

"But I'm not happy with less of you," the email stated. "I want 'none' of you. I want you gone. Dead. Caput. Fini. Get it? Now, take your two-bit advice, deep-six it, and you!"

Cavuto, who is currently broadcasting from his home, took the message in stride. "Wow, is he trying out for 'The Sopranos' prequel?" he joked.

It's not the anchor's first brush with online acrimony. In May, he likewise discussed hate mail he had received while on hiatus. "Damn, you're still alive?" one viewer wrote.

A spokesperson for Fox did not immediately provide comment on whether the latest threats, given the intensity of the debate over vaccines, have prompted additional security measures.



The message was one of several that, at the very least, mocked Cavuto for encouraging vaccination after he reported earlier this month that he had tested positive for COVID-19. At the time, the anchor, who has overcome multiple sclerosis, cancer, and heart disease, credited the vaccine with saving his life.

"While I'm somewhat stunned by this news, doctors tell me I'm lucky as well," Cavuto, who has been with the network for 25 years, said in a statement released by his employer. "Had I not been vaccinated, and with all my medical issues, this would be a far more dire situation."

Parent company Fox Corporation requires all on-site employees to either be vaccinated or undergo regular testing for COVID-19. Nonetheless, other Fox News personalities have used their platforms to discourage vaccination, promoting misinformation about the vaccines and railing against state and corporate mandates.

Primetime hosts such as Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham have still aired segments targeted against vaccine mandates and public health experts, as well as inviting thoroughly discredited anti-vax guests such as Alex Berenson onto their programs.

Carlson baselessly claimed in September that the US military was purging 'sincere Christians' and 'men with high testosterone levels' by requiring vaccines within the ranks - with COVID shots being just one of 18 immunizations service members are required to receive.

Fox News has undergone a conflicted evolution in its vaccine coverage, with the likes of Carlson and Ingraham sowing distrust in primetime after hosts like Cavuto promote the shots during the day.

In his return on-air Sunday during an appearance on Fox News' "MediaBuzz" with Howard Kurtz, Cavuto said he is not interested in framing vaccines in political terms.

"I have no the time for that," Cavuto said. "Life is too short to be an ass. Life is way too short to be ignorant of the promise of something that is helping people worldwide. Stop the deaths. Stop the suffering. Please, get vaccinated. Please."

Read the original article on Business Insider

‘A Danger to Our Democracy’: AOC, Others React to Bombshell Report That GOP Members Met With Jan. 6 Planners

Peter Wade
Mon, October 25, 2021

Capitol Breach - Credit: AP

Rolling Stone’s bombshell report that multiple Republican members of Congress met with organizers of the Stop the Steal event preceding the Capitol insurrection has elicited outrage across the nation — and through the halls of Congress. Lawmakers have responded to the story, published Sunday night, in droves, with some Democratic representatives going so far as to push for the expulsion of any members of Congress who were involved in planning the attack on the Capitol that occurred after the rally.

“They tried to overthrow the government, they had a plan, they executed it, and they broke many laws along the way,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) tweeted shortly after the report was published. “The problem won’t naturally fade away,” he added, noting that Trump appears to be gearing up for a 2024 run at the White House. “It must be confronted.”


Rolling Stone engaged in extensive conversations with two people who helped plan the events of Jan. 6 and who are now communicating with the House select committee investigating Jan. 6. These people shared that multiple members of Congress were “intimately involved in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turned violent.” Those members include Reps. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) — all of whom voted against certifying Joe Biden’s election win.

Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) noted on Twitter that he called out Gosar on the House floor during the attack on Jan. 6. “That’s why I screamed, ‘THIS IS BECAUSE OF YOU!’ at Paul Gosar on the House floor on Jan 6 as he was undermining our democracy and his traitorous devotees were storming the Capitol,” Phillips wrote.

Multiple members called for the expulsion of any representatives who were involved in the planning of the violence that unfolded at the Capitol. (Rolling Stone’s reporting did not state that the members helped plan the actual attack on the building.)

“Any member of Congress who helped plot a terrorist attack on our nation’s Capitol must be expelled,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) tweeted on Sunday.


Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), David Cicilline (D-R.I.), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) said the same in tweets of their own.

“Any Member of Congress who plotted with Jan. 6 terrorists must be removed from Congress,” Swalwell tweeted.

“Any Member who had knowledge of or helped plan the January 6 attack on the Capitol needs to be immediately expelled from Congress,” wrote Cicilline. “They cannot be trusted with the future of our democracy and country.”

“Anyone who aided in an attack on Congress should not be permitted to be a Member of Congress,” added Coleman. “Period.”

Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) tweeted a reminder that she has introduced a resolution in the House proposing an investigation and expulsion of any members who may have helped incite the riot. “My resolution to investigate and expel the Members of Congress who helped incite the deadly insurrection on our Capitol is just waiting for a vote,” Bush wrote. “It’s inexcusable to wait any longer.”

Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) kept his tweet simple. “Making sure you see this,” he wrote, tagging the FBI and Department of Justice.


Republicans have largely remained silent on the news that their colleagues helped plan the Jan. 6 events that turned violent, although Gohmert, one of the lawmakers who reportedly helped plan the events of Jan. 6, tweeted on Monday that the accusations are “baseless” and that he had nothing to do with “the planning of the really or any criminal activity on January 6.”


Gohmert couldn’t help but push the idea that “FBI operatives” were behind the events of Jan. 6, a conspiracy theory for which there is no evidence

More from Rolling Stone


Rep. Mo Brooks Admits Staff May Have Helped Plan Jan. 6 Events, Says He'd Be 'Proud' of Them If They Did


They Joined an Anti-Government Militia -- With Their Government Emails


What Insurrection? Corporate America Can't Stop Bankrolling the Jan. 6 Sedition Caucus

New, troubling questions about Madison Cawthorn and Jan. 6

New, troubling questions about Madison Cawthorn and Jan. 6

The Editorial Board
Mon, October 25, 2021

Followers of former President Donald Trump have found one conspiracy theory they don’t like: That some Republican members of Congress may have had deeper roles in plans and events that led to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

One reason they don’t like it is that — unlike the bizarre theories of QAnon, the baseless notions of rampant voter fraud and suspicions about COVID vaccines — the concern that members of Congress may have had a hand in efforts to overturn the election appears to be backed by evidence.

Rolling Stone reported on Sunday that two organizers of the Jan. 6 protests have told congressional investigators that “multiple members of Congress were intimately involved in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turned violent.”

Rolling Stone said the organizers, speaking anonymously, named seven Republican members of Congress who joined, either directly or through their staffers, in the effort to overturn the election. Republican North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn was among those named.

Cawthorn spokesman Luke Ball dismissed the report on Monday, saying, “These anonymous accusations are complete garbage. Neither the congressman nor his staff had advance knowledge of what transpired at the Capitol on January 6th or participated in any alleged ‘planning process.’ ”

That Cawthorn was named is hardly a surprise. He spoke at the Jan. 6 rally near the White House where he said, “The Democrats, with all the fraud they have done in this election, the Republicans, hiding and not fighting, they are trying to silence your voice.”

Since then, Cawthorn has suggested that another contested election may require taking up arms. “When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes your duty,” he told a Republican group.

Cawthorn’s remarks are not the only embarrassment for North Carolina. The Rolling Stone report also suggests deep involvement in the Jan. 6 events by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, a former Republican congressman who preceded Cawthorn in North Carolina’s 11th District. And then there is the shameless behavior of Republican members of the state’s congressional delegation, who opposed formation of the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 events.

Republican links to the Capitol attack are not limited to Republicans in Washington. ProPublica reported last week that at least two Republican members of the North Carolina General Assembly are members of the Oath Keepers, a militant group whose members were among the instigators of the Jan. 6 violence. Meanwhile, WRAL reported that Gaston County Republican Donnie Loftis — the Republicans’ choice to replace the late state Rep. Dana Bumgardner — joined the “Stop the Steal Rally” outside the Capitol on Jan. 6. He was close enough that he “got gassed three times,” according to what WRAL said is a since-deleted Loftis Facebook post.

Anyone who truly cares about democracy knows it is threatened by the authoritarian instincts of Trump and his followers, and by Republicans who are too timid to stand against that threat. Elected officials like Cawthorn are not simply zealots or cranks. They are the start of what could become an anti-democratic wave that would have a white and wealthy minority preside over the nation against the popular will.

The Rolling Stone report adds new urgency to the work of the House select committee investigating who and what drove the events of Jan. 6, and what must be done to end the smoldering danger to our democracy.

Even one of the organizers of the Jan. 6 rally now realizes that urgency. They told Rolling Stone: “The reason I’m talking to the committee and the reason it’s so important is that — despite Republicans refusing to participate … this commission’s all we got as far as being able to uncover the truth about what happened at the Capitol that day. It’s clear that a lot of bad actors set out to cause chaos.”

Now the committee must uncover who those bad actors are — and how many of them are from North Carolina.

GOP members lash out at Rolling Stone report linking them to Jan. 6 planning


Emily Brooks
Mon, October 25, 2021

BOEBERT COMPLAINS SHE WAS NOT INCLUDED 


A number of Republican members of Congress named in a Rolling Stone report as being involved in planning the details of rallies and electoral certification objection on the day of Jan. 6 ahead of the riot at the U.S. Capitol building, either personally or through top staff members, are pushing back on or outright refuting the story.

"No one in my office, including me, participated in the planning of the rally or in any criminal activity on Jan. 6. We did not attend or participate at all,” Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert said in a statement on Monday. “However, I am extremely interested to find out who, besides the FBI operatives, did plan the events on Jan. 6. For the purpose of a potential defamation lawsuit against those making baseless accusations of a crime, I need to know who these persons are who are alleging that I helped.”

A Rolling Stone report published Sunday, citing conversations with two anonymous sources, says that “multiple people associated with the March for Trump and Stop the Steal events” had “communicated with members of Congress throughout this process.”

Specifically, the story names Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, Andy Biggs of Arizona, and Gohmert.

"If you’re talking about someone participating in meetings, setting the agenda, raising the money, I don’t know of anything that suggests my staff as doing that stuff," Brooks told the Montgomery Advertiser in an interview pushing back on the report on Monday.

Brooks also rejected a portion of the Rolling Stone report that said he and Cawthorn spoke with then-President Donald Trump at the rally at the Ellipse outside the White House on Jan. 6.

"There was a meeting at the White House about voter fraud and election theft activity," Brooks said. "But I have no recollection of any kind of organizational activity regarding the speeches on Jan. 6."

Boebert also pushed back on the report.

“I had no role in the planning or execution of any event that took place at the Capitol or anywhere in Washington, DC on January 6th,” Boebert said in a statement on Monday. “With the help of my staff, I accepted an invitation to speak at one event but ultimately I did not speak at any events on January 6th. Once again, the media is acting as a messaging tool for the radical left.”

In comments to Rolling Stone, a spokesperson for Greene said that she “and her staff were focused on the Congressional election objection on the House floor and had nothing to do with [the] planning of any protest.”

Much of the lawmakers’ connections to planning certain aspects of Jan. 6 reported in the Rolling Stone story was already public knowledge. Members had publicized that they planned to object to the certification of the Electoral College results. Cawthorn and Brooks spoke at the rally at the Ellipse on Jan. 6.

Gosar spoke at a “Stop the Steal” rally that Alexander organized in Phoenix on Dec. 19, 2020, and Biggs taped a recorded message that was played at that rally. ProPublica previously reported that Gosar’s chief of staff Tom Van Flein said he was in “regular contact” with Alexander about objecting to the certification of the election results.

Gosar, Greene, and Boebert were all listed as “invited speakers” at a separate “Wild Protest” organized by Alexander that was set to occur near the Capitol, though it is not clear that they accepted any such invitation.

The Rolling Stone report, however, did reveal new information and make new allegations, including that the members or their staffs were involved on planning calls, though it did not specify in great detail how they were involved with the planning.

The outlet reported that it obtained “documentary evidence” that its two anonymous organizer sources were in contact with Gosar and Boebert on Jan. 6.

Its sources also alleged that Gosar floated the idea of Trump issuing a blanket pardon “in an unrelated ongoing investigation to encourage them to plan the protests” and gave the impression that he had spoken to Trump about the idea and was attempting to get Freedom Caucus support for it.

Stephen Colbert Shreds 2 Pro-Trump Insurrection Lawmakers By Name In Blistering Takedown

NO MENTION OF BOEBERT

Ed Mazza
Wed, October 27, 2021

Stephen Colbert tore into two of the GOP lawmakers who Rolling Stone said took part in planning sessions with the organizers of the Donald Trump rally that preceded the deadly Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) denied any involvement. But as Colbert noted, Brooks not only spoke at the rally, he reportedly wore body armor while there.

“That’s like showing up to your surprise party in a full ballgown and tiara,” Colbert said. “Something tells me you were tipped off.”

Then, Colbert turned his ire toward Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), who reportedly dangled blanket pardons from Trump for the rally’s planners. Over the weekend, Gosar posted a meme of himself as James Bond.

“It’s appropriate. After all, Gosar’s IQ is 007,“Colbert said. ”... And, if helped plan the riot, he’ll be lucky to be out on bond. Bail bond.”

See more in Colbert’s Tuesday night monologue:

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

How Dumb Are They? Stephen Colbert Describes The Stupidity Of GOP Insurrectionists

Ed Mazza
Tue, October 26, 2021
Stephen Colbert mockingly saluted the “intellectual giants” of the Republican Party who were named in a new Rolling Stone report for helping the planners of the Jan. 6 Donald Trump rally that preceded the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol.

And by “intellectual giants,” Colbert meant the exact opposite as he described Reps. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).

“It’s a real ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ of people who can’t count to 10,” Colbert said. “They have to set reminders on their phone to remind themselves to breathe.”

One Jan. 6 planner told Rolling Stone he specifically remembered the involvement of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.).

“Yes,” Colbert said. “I can imagine it’s hard to forget someone who tells you forest fires are caused by circumcised space lasers.”

See more in his Monday night monologue:

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

The Harshest Punishment Paul Gosar Could Get for Jan. 6

The Daily Beast
Tue, October 26, 2021

Photo Illustration Daily Beast/Getty

Paul Gosar has been basically caught red-handed.

According to bombshell reporting from Hunter Walker for Rolling Stone, the far-right Arizona congressman promised Jan. 6 rioters blanket “pardons.” Not only that, but according to Walker, he was so confident about those pardons he called them a “done deal.”

Walker tells The New Abnormal host Molly Jong-Fast all about it in Tuesday’s episode, including his secret weapon for getting such big scoops: chiefs of staff.

“Oftentimes, they know more, they’re closer to what happened on any given story. And also, they are less schooled in the art of not saying things,” Walker says says.

Case in point: He saw Gosar’s chief of staff hanging out with a Jan. 6 rioter on the social platform Clubhouse. (Walker was also sent strongly worded emails from Lauren Boebert’s chief of staff, but we digress.)

So even though all of these things are coming to light about Jan. 6, what’s next? Molly asks. Well, a lot—but not much at all.

“They have a couple degrees of response. The first one is a reprimand, which is essentially a strongly worded letter that is theoretically a problem I guess if you’re in a competitive district and have a challenger. The next one is a censure, which is a stronger, strongly worded letter,” Walker explains.

At some point, getting booted from one’s position by the House is an option, but with Republican support, “the real cards will lie with the DOJ,” says Walker.

How Marjorie Taylor Greene ‘Basically Bought’ Her House Seat

Plus! The reporter re-enacts actual emails he’s gotten from people on the Hill, and by people we mean GOP-ers like Dr. Sebastian Gorka.

Then, David Pepper, author of Laboratories of Autocracy: A Wake-Up Call from Behind the Lines, tells Molly how Republicans in state houses (like his home state of Ohio) are all slowly burning our democracy to the ground—and passing on the playbook to other states as they go. But not if we do this first.